Mr. Fantastic

I frankly only want to add the icon to my stats page. I don't yet have all of the available ones, but I am working on it.

I was in Grand Rapids, MI in the spring of 2004 with a few other Illinois cachers. We were hunting Steps of Justice. As our logs indicate, we so startled someone she sped off and called the police. The officer that stopped us was very nice, even if she thought we were nuts.

I am am avid Garmin user. I started with a Geko and quickly upgraded to the 60CS. I have to admit that I am more loyal to Apple Computer and wish someone would make software as great for the Mac as exists for the PC. I drive a 1996 Toyota Carolla. It is great for commuting and most of the terrain in suburban Chicago. Before that I drove a 1990 Carolla. When this one dies, I would like to continue with the Carolla, if they make a hybrid before my current car dies.

I had purchased a little Geko for the dayhikes I enjoy in northern Illinois. Around Thanksgiving 2003, I saw an article in the Chicago Tribune that discussed geocaching. I cannot remember which cacher was in the article, but I thought I would try it out. The first cache I found was near my old house in Chicago and I have been hooked ever since. I should also mention that I upgraded to a Garmin GPSMap 60CS last spring and it has made adding waypoints significantly easier.

I too only want to offer my condolences. I am so overly concerned with theft that I take everything from my car. I don't leave spare change, my wallet, my cell phone, my iPod, cd cases, my GPSr or anything else sitting in it when I leave. Admitedly, it takes me a few minutes to collect everything when I park, but I feel better that way.

That last link made me laugh when I saw how many containers it contained. I still have some ammo cans from my last cheaperthandirt purchase. I guess I should treasure them even more than I already did.

My reply is for Joe Smith. If you are working on the Mac, then hold down control and click on the file. It should give you the option to download linked file. Then you can save it wherever you want. I hope this helps. Hooray for the Mac!

I don't know if my skills would be helpful, but I will volunteer my services also.

These pictures come from Wasco Zookeeper's Fall Frolic #5- On Golden Pond. I reached the location shortly after the controlled burn began. This is approximately the former ground zero of the cache.

Geocaching reminded me of something I had forgotten. I often allow work to consume me. When I am caching, I have to accept that there are bigger things than my work life. I also realize that I might not be able to find everything I look for. Sometimes it helps me regain perspective.

It seems to me that approval of the land manager is all that you need to move forward. The cache approvers should have no problems with anything else, I think.

I tried talking to the local arboretum, but things never really got going. It was over a year ago and I agreed to use natural features as steps in a multi. The final cache would have been placed in a pedestrian friendly location. I think they were undergoing some changes last spring that precluding pursuing this. Unfortunately, life got in the way for me and I have not had a chance to try resurrecting the original conversation.

If I am not geocaching, I am teaching, spending time with my nearly 3 year old daughter in other activities, hiking with the family, coaching water polo, sleeping, taking graduate classes, working on union activities, volunteering with my local park district, and some other things I have forgotten. I think this reminds me that I try to do too much. My wife tells me this all the time.

I have only found creepy skeletal remains that would warrant mentioning here. Thank goodness my three year old daughter and I did not find that pistol. That would freak me out and probably interest her too much. However, I am surprised by the last post's comment about fear. I applaud the cacher who reported it for not ignoring the illegal activity in the park. I would hate to see how much crime would climb if we all ignored it out of fear for retribution. I teach in a high school and see some similar actions by my students. As I am sure most people remember, high school can be hard enough just trying to make sense of who you are. The teachers spend much of our time outside the classroom working to help kids make good decisions. Whether it is in the hallway, the lunchroom or the athletic competitions, we encourage positive actions and discourage negative ones. I would not feel comfortable continuing to do that after I chose to ignore illegal activity in the forest because I was concerned that illegal pot growers would try to do future harm to me.

I know what I would do in this situation, which is to report it. Whether or not the guy was joking, I'd like to make sure the trails I hike are safe for my family. I have to admit that I am surprised by the numbers of posters condoning illegal activity. Maybe I am foolish for thinking so, but personal feelings about pot would have to take lower priority if the situation were impacting society as a whole, right? When it starts to potentially have an effect on my family, I would certainly hope that anyone would report it. If you want to advocate legalizing marijuana for whichever of the reasons already posted, is passively ignoring the plants in this situation really the answer? I would think that convincing the legislature to pass laws would be the only way to accomplish that goal.

OK, so we lost our water polo sectional semifinal to our cross-town rival tonight. We made too many mistakes and did not capitalize on the mistakes they made. It was disappointing to lose, but at least I can now go caching this weekend.

I am just excited to be able to geto after those local caches that have been piling up while I coached. Water polo is a spring sport in Illinois and even if we win the state title, the season ends next weekend. More realistically, we have a chance to win our sectional, but probably not the state title. Once the season ends, all those weekends will be free for caching!

I would be interested to know if anything like Streets and Trips exists for the Mac.

I have started listening to the program and think it is great. Sadly(but only in the context of hearing the entire program), my commute is only 10 minutes. I have an iPod but not microphone. Maybe I could use this as an excuse to spend more money on another gadget. The wife would certainly love me for that.

I started caching at 206- the heaviest I ever reached. I am 5'11, so that was way too much for me. I am down to 178 as of this morning. I want to reach 170 this summer and stay there. At the time I reached my heaviest, I was on the bargaining team for the teachers' contract and we drank too much soda and ate too much junk while bargaining. In addition to caching, I started eating more vegetables, less junk, and started going to the gym every day. Granted, I have to go before school now that I have a child and a million obligations. It is nice and peaceful in the gym when it opens at 5 am. Since I am also coaching right now, I know the few pounds that I have lost this spring are not from caching.

I am a spry 32 and my caching partner(most of the time) EmGeo is going to be 3 in June. My only very infrequently caching wife is 33 and we have a future male geocacher due in August. I guess we bring the average age down a bit when we start counting into the future.

I don't pretend to have an answer, but I do recognize that attacking the powers that be will almost never lead to the sought after conclusion. I would suggest organizing a CITO event in one of the parks. I would assume anyone can get a picnic permit with little or no hassle. Once you have a decent number of people commited, maybe you can engage the site manager in a conversation about geocaching. That might be a way to receive permission to place several caches for CITO participants to find. If it goes well, maybe this administrator will be on our side. I have no idea if that would work. I have no more insight into Winnebago County politics than any other cacher. I just have hope that people are reasonable.

I live in Oswego and have not seen any requirements imposed by Kane or Kendall County FPDs. I hope geocachers in those areas can proactively show those authorities of the CITO and other positives we bring to the parks. If we can be seen as positive contributors, then maybe we can avoid the onerous restrictions begun in Will and DuPage Counties.

I understand the FPD's concern with sensitive areas. However, it is too bad that they did not create a policy that encourages use of their parks. I could see asking hiders to acquire a map that lists prohibited areas for conservation concerns. As far as other areas of the parks go, they should theoretically enjoy having anyone come use the land. I wonder if they could be moved to reconsider the onerous requirements if we were to show them the level of CITO that cachers perform. I would think that service deserves a little respect or something like that.

I am currently in the rare category but preparing to move to medium. I use a fanny pack that carries extra batteries, travel bugs, tweezers and a pen. Sometimes I add a compass or specific tools if the cache I intend to find calls for it. I have a Camelbak that will allow me to carry more stuff, though I am not sure I want to.